OXFORD – School and town officials in SAD 17 are standing in solidarity in a major campaign to defeat the 1 percent tax-cap referendum in November.

At the invitation of school officials, the town managers and selectmen agreed to hold a joint meeting to give their best estimates of how school and municipal services would be affected if the tax cap passes.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Forum at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

They also agreed to use private funds to create a flyer about the tax cap’s impact and mail it to district taxpayers. The flyer will detail the projected impact in each of the eight towns in the district, as well as the impact on schools.

Superintendent Mark Eastman said the district is willing to share the burden of a 10-mill cap on property taxes if the measure by activist Carol Palesky passes. That’s because he knows that the 9.8 average mill rate for education in the district would require most towns to turn over all their property tax revenue under the cap.

If the district only assessed 5.8 mills for education to the towns, the school budget would have to be cut by $5.6 million. But Eastman acknowledged that state law requires SAD 17 to raise at least 8.39 mills to receive a full state subsidy.

Norway Town Manager David Holt said he appreciated the district’s gesture, which he has called “laudable but not lawful.”

Holt said he was more interested in whether the district planned to share any of the windfall from the successful referendum in June mandating that the state pay 55 percent of the cost of education.

“No one has heard you say what you are going to do now that Question 1 is passed,” Holt said to Eastman.

Eastman said the district is concerned that it will face new expenses that are as-yet unknown from the Essential Programs and Services funding formula passed by the Legislature.

“For us there’s so much confusion,” said Eastman, who said transportation expenses were a big question mark. In addition, nobody wants to hear that their school is a failing school under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he said.

Holt asked if the district could at least pledge not to use the extra funding to pay for new programs and services. Eastman said that could be discussed.

Norway Selectman Robert Walker said that as towns lobby against the tax cap, it’s critical “to show these people that we’re serious about reducing these taxes.”

Holt said the tax-cap proposal, if it passes, has the potential to pit schools against towns. “Any law that tries to regulate property taxes should also regulate SADs,” he said.

Eastman agreed that “the last thing we want, and I’m sure that’s what Palesky wants, is let’s fight among each other.”

All agreed that a jointly issued impact statement would show not only solidarity against the cap, but also a coordinated, thoughtful response based on the best information available.

“We’re being painted in the negative for using scare tactics, but damn it, once in a while, the truth is scary,” Walker said.